The present invention relates to systems and equipment sets for the administration of medical liquids to a patient, and more particularly, to systems and equipment sets for the sequential administration of a plurality of medical liquids employing a novel air capturing pocket in the flow path of one liquid to prevent the passage of liquid through that path when a second liquid is being dispensed.
The parenteral administration of medical liquids to patients is a long established practice. Liquids including amino acids, dextrose, electrolytes, and saline are commonly administered to patients over prolonged periods of time. Generally, these liquids are administered from a glass bottle or plastic bag suspended above the patient and containing 250-1,000 ml. of the liquid. Such prolonged infusions commonly are administered at a flow rate of 10-150 ml./hr.
Frequently, the patient must receive an additive or secondary liquid while the prolonged infusion is being administered. Preferably, this secondary liquid should be administered through the same hypodermic needle to avoid unnecessary pain and trauma to the patient of additional venipunctures. To avoid dilution and incompatability problems, it is also preferable that the flow of the primary liquid employed in the prolonged infusion be temporarily interrupted, the secondary liquid administered and the flow of the primary liquid resumed. Generally, the secondary liquid will be administered at flow rate of 50-250 ml./hr.
Abbott Laboratories, North Chicago, Ill. manufactures a Y-type set for the sequential administration of primary and secondary liquids. These VENOSET.RTM. piggyback sets allow the prolonged infusion of a primary liquid to be temporarily halted by means of a backcheck valve in the primary flow path to administer a secondary liquid without the need for a new venipuncture. Then, when the secondary liquid has been depleted, the backcheck valve automatically opens to resume flow of the primary liquid. An important characteristic of this system is that the secondary liquid container must be suspended at a higher height than the primary liquid container to establish the liquid pressure differential that closes the backcheck valve in the primary liquid flow path.
A similar system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,886,937 granted June 3, 1975 to D. Bobo, et al., assigned to American Hospital Supply Corporation, and entitled "Medical Administration Set for Dispensing Plural Medical Liquids." Another similar system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,105,029 granted Aug. 8, 1978 to R. Virag, assigned to Baxter Travenol and entitled "Intravenous Solution Set Having An Air Access Site and Constricted Inner Diameter Portion."
An inherent disadvantage of the above-mentioned prior art medical liquid administration systems is that they each resume the flow of primary liquid at the rate the secondary liquid had been flowing. Because the preferred rate of the secondary liquid is generally greater than the preferred flow rate of the primary liquid, when the primary liquid resumes flow at that rate, the patient can be administered an excessive amount of primary liquid, unless the flow rate of the primary liquid is adjusted to the preferred primary liquid flow rate soon after the flow of primary liquid resumes.
A remedy to the above-described disadvantage would appear to be provided by simply incorporating flow control devices into both the primary and secondary liquid flow paths. However, while this remedy does provide dual flow rates for the primary and secondary liquids, it is unacceptable. That is, because the common tube of the Y-set must be able to accommodate both flow rates, when the primary liquid is flowing at a slower rate than the secondary liquid was, there will be an unfilled volume or void in the common tube. To fill that void, air will be drawn into the common tube from the depleted secondary container. That air will then be driven into the patient by the weight of the primary liquid, thereby causing a serious embolism and perhaps, the patient's death.
In order to solve this problem, various filter systems for preventing air passing into a patient may be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,854,907 (Rising), 3,149,758 (Bush), and 4,116,646 (Edwards), all assigned to Millipore Corporation. All of these devices utilize a hydrophilic membrane filter. However, the use of an air barrier to allow automatic sequencing of primary and secondary medical liquids and the further use of preset primary and secondary flow controls was first disclosed in U.S. Ser. No. 16,461 filed Feb. 28, 1979, of which this application is a continuation-in-part.
From the foregoing, it will be apparent that improved systems for the sequential administration of medical liquids at dual flow rates would be highly advantageous to the medical profession.